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Fawlty Towers - A Touch of Class/The Builders/The Wedding Party/The Hotel Inspectors | 
 enlarge | Actors: John Cleese, Prunella Scales, Connie Booth, Andrew Sachs
Studio: BBC Warner
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $12.79
You Save: $7.19 (36%)
New (30) Used (14) from $10.24
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 52926
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 170
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: WARDE1573D
ISBN: 0790760398
UPC: 794051157324
EAN: 9780790760391
ASIN: B00005LC1E
Release Date: October 16, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: This DVD set is brand new, factory sealed! Ships 1st class mail!
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Product Description
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/13/2005 Run time: 120 minutes Rating: Nr
Amazon.com
John Cleese has always maintained that Fawlty Towers was inspired by a real hotel that was run by a proprietor who treated guests as an inconvenience to running a business. No one in the world, however, can possibly match the sheer insolence and incompetence of Basil Fawlty, perhaps the most brazenly rude character in the history of customer disservice. "A Touch of Class," the series pilot, finds Basil bemoaning the riff-raff he's forced to deal with when he signs in a Lord Melbury. Immediately melting into an embarrassingly obsequious toady, Basil is blinded by nobility and becomes the perfect patsy for the old con man. In "The Builders," Cleese proves there are no limits to what lengths Basil Fawlty will go to save a few quid. Enlisting a resistant Polly in his plot, he quietly fires the respectable carpenters hired by his wife, Sybil, and brings in a cheap crew with a history of disaster. Sure enough, they wind up walling up the entrance to the dining room, sending an insanely outraged Basil into a frenzy as he tries to correct the blunder before Sybil returns. Davis Kelly (Waking Ned Devine) costars as the genial but incompetent O'Reilly. Basil smells hanky-panky in the air in "The Wedding Party," when he signs in an unmarried couple and soon sees foreplay in every innocent kiss and embrace. Meanwhile, a sexy French antique dealer sends Basil into red-faced vexations with her flirtations and Manuel's birthday results in a drunken binge and a morning-after hangover that only adds to the bellhop's usual incompetence at the morning breakfast service. When Sybil overhears that "The Hotel Inspectors" are in the area, Basil makes an about-face in his brusque treatment of a demanding guest, falling all over himself to cater to the guest's every whim while he boorishly insults every other customer. When he discovers his mistake he makes up for lost insolence in a campaign of comic terror. --Sean Axmaker
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Oops! January 15, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I purchased the John Cleese DVD as a gift for a cousin living on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. So far I have received no complaints!
The British part of the family enjoyed the seriew, and hope our cousins will too!
Fawlty Towers, Vol. 1 - A Touch of Class/Builders/Wedding
 Good Fun! December 28, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a classic British sitcom and a must have for any John Cleese fan! I recieved my order in less than 2 weeks (in time for Christmas) and am very pleased!
Quite Simply the Solution to Everything November 24, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Yes, of course, the world is coming to a banging, whimpering end. The toilet is flooding the bathroom, the kids' report card is finally confirming just WHOSE side of the family the kid is taking after and your boss couldn't be a bigger Bozo even if they had on the red nose and upturned wig. Stop, breathe and sit down for the supreme madness and wisdom of this incredible and perfect solution to everything. Cleese gives vent to all your frustration in ways sublime and the ever-suffering wife provides new modes of disbelief to employ in all stressful situations. And then--MY personal favorite--the long-suffering
"Wily E. Coyote" of British comedy--Manuel. When you return refreshed, because nothing compares to Basil's life, you may begin to cope with your own disasters capable and smiling once more.
 Faulty towers February 4, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
John Cleese's "Fawlty Towers" is one of those universally funny TV shows, all about the undignified exploits of a perpetually hostile, repressed and tetchy hotel manager, and the more competant staff who try to keep thngs sane. This DVD contains the first three episodes, which starts off a little wobbly but quckly gains its comic footing.
In "A Touch of Class," Basil Fawlty (Cleese) puts out a snotty ad to attract a "better class of customer," which attracts a pleasant aristocrat. Basil fawns revoltingly over the man, neglecting the other guests. But savvy waittress Polly (Connie Booth) discovers that another guest is a cop -- and that Basil is in danger of handing his coins over to a con man.
"The Builders" are called in for Fawlty Towers, while Basil's wife Sybil (Prunella Scales) is away. But Basil has hired a cut-rate builder, and Manuel (Andrew Sachs) and his broken English are in command at the time. So when Basil arrives, he finds a disaster zone -- and he has only a matter of hours to repair it.
Finally, Basil's prudish sensibilities are offended when a couple stays at the hotel -- and they're not married. Even worse, an older couple shows up and seems to be engaging in hanky-panky with the younger ones -- and even Polly is in on the action. Now Basil is determined to keep it all clean and chaste -- as he dodges an amorous Frenchwoman.
The first few episodes are not quite up to the standards of later ones like "The Germans" and "The Kipper and the Corpse," with some comic timing that just feels a little off. But the first volume of "Fawlty Towers" is still very entertaining, and has lots of legendary comic moments like Basil throttling the gnome. (And no, that is not a wink-wink-nudge-nudge euphemism)
What is really noticeable about this series is that there is always a feeling of barely-restrained chaos, as if peace'n'quiet is an abnormality. The crazy humor tends towards naughtiness (a drunken Manuel embracing Basil in the hallway) and slapstic, while the dialogue is loaded down with witticisms ("She can kill a man at ten paces with one blow of her tongue!").
Basil is a prudish, eccentric, classist manager based on a nightmare hotelier that Cleese met during his "Monty Python" days, and Cleese is brilliant here. Scales is great as his acid-tongued, beehived wife, while Booth and Sachs are great as (respectively) the intelligent waittress and the hapless Spanish waiter who doesn't understand half of what people say, because "he's from Barcelona."
"Fawlty Towers" lacked total brilliance at the start, but by the third episode the series had evened out nicely. A great trio of episodes.
A Much Needed Laugh March 12, 2003
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Faulty Towers brings laughter and a great deal of relief from a barrage of news which offers nothing but gloom and doom. John Cleese and the entire company can cheer anybody with their farce and comedy. Highly recommend this series to anyone who wants to get a good laugh.
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